OLED to make modest inroads into TV market during next few years, iSuppli says

Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) display technology is set to make minor inroads into the TV market during the next few years, according to research firm iSuppli.

Now mainly relegated to mobile-phone displays, OLED-TV shipments will rise at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 170 percent to reach 1.2 million units in 2012, up from 8000 in 2007.

OLED will be limited, however, to less than half of 1 percent of the 242.7 million unit worldwide TV market in 2011, according to the firm.

OLEDs offer fast response time, good color, high brightness, excellent viewing angles and high contrast ratios. Additionally, they don’t need backlights, which makes them potentially thinner than the alternative flat-panel technologies on the market.

The resolutions needed in the television market are attainable with the technology, and OLED-TVs larger than 20in could be sold by 2012, according to iSuppli. Most likely, they will use polymer panels made by inkjet printing in the largest sizes, but small-molecule OLEDs made by evaporation techniques could also be used.

Shortcomings like a crowded display market, poor manufacturing yields, limited life and relative expense (twice that of comparable size LCD displays), however, will prevent wider adoption of OLED technology in the market.